Computer security issues are becoming more widespread as an ever-increasing number of diverse computer applications are developed. Trusted Computing Group has been established to develop, define, and promote open standards for hardware-enabled trusted computing and security technologies. These technologies include hardware modules and software interfaces that aim to work across multiple platforms.
A trusted computing base (TCB) of a computer system is a set of hardware, firmware, and software components that are critical to the system security, in the sense that bugs occurring within the TCB might jeopardize the security properties of the entire system. By contrast, parts of a computer system outside the TCB supposedly are unable to leak any more privileges than was granted to them in the first place in accordance to a security policy. The careful design and implementation of a system's TCB is paramount to overall system security.